Change in Direction

Well, I am sitting in my apartment on what could be the best, most beautiful day of this year so far. Did I ever mention how much I love autumn and October? The colors, the mild weather, people come back to their senses after a long summer of heated debauchery. If I could bag up all the scenic beauty and relaxed feelings of this beautiful day, I would! And then I would selfishly store it in one of my gargantuan shoulder bags, so I could pull out this great day any time I needed a pick me up. Since that isn't possible, I will just enjoy this sunny picture of some garden/shrine that some old ladies made across from my apartment. I love this little area. It's a great place to sit and read or sketch.



The past few days have been a complete whirl-wind! My dad tells me the day that he is supposed to watch my toddler that he won't be able to for some time to come. This sent my sleep deprived husband and me into a frenzy as we packed and jetted our kid to the in-laws, who live 3 hours away in the woods. For. Serious. This was Wednesday. Then, I go in to work, super exhausted, to find out that I have a whopping mad heap of work to do! Wednesday is when I realized that I have a very intense prejudice, almost hatred, for Lazy People! I can't complain. My job is fairly easy. I have plenty of time to do the things I am supposed to every night. But if one person doesn't do their job, I am bombarded with an overwhelming amount of busy-work that must be completed in one night..."or else". Long story made short, my supervisor calls me right when I get to work to tell me she is coming in to help me with my nightly tasks even though she had the day off because I am behind 6 training hours on the final day of the fiscal year.


First, let me say, I am an amazing employee and I am never behind in any trainings! I completed them all in the first place... but some other Lazy Imbecile lost my documentation... and we all know what my craft room looks like as evidence of my organizational "skills". My super tells me she will be in between 2-3 am to help me finish everything. This is coming from the woman who spends a considerable amount of time passed out in the parking lot inside of her car. I knew better. So I just found some online quizzes to take for training hours, where I didn't have to watch the video. The training videos are a mess. A hot mess! This guy who looks like Santa Claus does most of them and he has the worst monotone voice, yet somehow his jokes are even more intolerable than the sound of his drumming on about random topics. I happen to really enjoy Christmas, so I admit, when I am down, I will watch a training video just because Santa makes me feel happy.... Moving on.... My super shows up at 5:30am and proceeds to check her e-mail for an hour! I have to wake the kids up at 6:45. Luckily, I am self-reliant, skeptical, non-trusting, and a control freak. I was able to finish everything just in the nick of time. I had absolutely No time for crafts for the night. I know I am at work and I have no right to whine about not making things while on the clock, but still! Dammit! So while serving pancakes, I completely ignored all the whining and rude comments from the children I work with in order to attempt a new square for quilts.


Apparently, I have some sort of a knack for screwing up instructions because I was met with several FAILS! This is the first attempt. I was supposed to end up with a symmetrical closed square with a puff stitch flower thing in the middle. Somewhere between losing count and "Ms. Bri, you're a jerk! We know you burn our breakfast on purpose, bitch" I made a mistake and ended up with a lop-sided square that I wouldn't be able to connect to anything.

I realized that counting is also not quite my specialty, so I made an effort to turn the closed square into a granny square pattern that didn't require as much thought and effort. But somewhere between "Dammit! Why are my pancakes hard enough to bust a hole in the plastered walls? You are evil, Ms. Bri!" and a daydream about hexagon afghans in an effort to tune out the morning insanity, I decided that this motif also wasn't for me.

So I played around and I finally came up with something that I think is really precious for a baby girl afghan. I have never made puff stitches before. I have to admit that I am a little addicted! Puff stitches are so cute!

So my new baby blanket will be made of these precious hexies...

Thursday night was more of the same insanity, as I went in to work 3 hours early. We had a staff meeting. I am not the most intelligent or even verbose person alive, but I at least try very hard not to use words I without knowledge of how to use them properly. In the same 10 minute frame I heard "I pacifically asked about..." "Well I wasn't sure, but I didn't have time to require any information on..." and something else that had me laughing for an hour straight. Then the head honcho comes in and speaks in so many euphemisms in regards to the Devil, that we all laugh literally until we are snorting, snotting, and farting all over each other. The last staff meeting he attended, all euphemisms were related to mirrors and horses. I got to work early, but due to my supervisor either being eaten alive by pterodactyl or being abducted by aliens, I was rushed in my work because I wasn't given the things I needed to do my job until an hour before I was supposed to leave.

The upside? The progress made on these cutie pie puff stitch hexies... I made 27 hexagons last night while waiting to get to work...

I know what you may be thinking... What happened to the giant, twin-sized purple blanket? All I can say is that is an excellent question! Just kidding. I decided to go in a new direction. This new direction being getting things finished within the time I have allotted. Right now, I just have a few weeks to finish as many blankets, hat/scarf sets, books, jewelry, and some other things. I also need to create some magical photo space to upload pictures onto my website/shop. In the mean time, I should find a free photography class! Ha! I do not have that "photographic eye", or whatever it is called.

I am sure some day.... in the way distant future, when I no longer need my wrists, I will be able to sit and work diligently on the purple blanket. Until then, it's going to be baby blankets and throws for sofas. By the way, YES, I absolutely always have some justification as to why I didn't finish something I started. Always. You can try me if you like!

Since I have been wandering aimlessly amidst all the chaos that has come about in the past few days, I didn't even think to make a to-do list. Tomorrow... I am not working at night *Happy Dance* so I will: 1- do something with my hair, 2- go to the ST JAMES ART SHOW, and 3- get groceries so I can cook something delightful. Tonight, I will pick out some new recipes to try. I am excited.... and 4- get some Japanese & specialty papers for my books that I will start to bind on Wednesday, whether I have finished all crochet projects or not! If I have time and/or remember, I will also post some links to crochet tutorials, other awesome blogs, and possibly also my little project time line that I am working towards... But that's just a maybe!

Stay tuned....